To celebrate International Open Access Week, we are highlighting some routes to achieve open access that are available to University of Reading researchers.

Dr Emese Lazar

Dr Emese Lazar, ICMA Centre at University of Reading, published one of her recent papers using a fully open access journal via the gold open access route. Here, she explains why she chose this route and how she applied for funding.

When you were choosing where to publish, were you thinking about submitting to journals that would be able to make your article open access?Yes, publishing in a fully open access journal was an active choice. Fully open access journals have a reputation for quick publication (as they are usually online only) and I wanted to make my work accessible to the public.

Were you aware of the University’s gold open access fund when you submitted to the journal?
No I wasn’t aware. I filled in the form requesting open access via the University Library website. I didn’t have any external funding for this piece of research.

How easy was the process to apply for and get open access funding?Applying was very quick and easy. I had help from the open access team in the library and I got the funding approved on the same day that I applied! It took a bit longer to sort out payment with the publisher (almost a month), but this was handled by the Library team.

Has your article received much attention since it was published?As our article can be accessed from several places, it is difficult to track the full number of reads and downloads. From the journal website, it looks as if the article has been viewed 981 times and downloaded 793 times since 16 May 2017.

Altmetric attention score for Emese’s article

We also uploaded the paper to CentAUR and it has been downloaded 17 times up until the end of September 2017.

The Altmetric score for the paper is above average compared to outputs of the same age and it is ranked number 10 of 112 papers published in the journal at the same time.
I also made and uploaded a video about the paper to YouTube and that has had 60 views.

Will you try and make your next output open access?I would definitely consider fully open access journals in the future since this publishing route can increase the visibility of my research.

Do you have any advice for others thinking about applying for open access funding?You might not have thought about publishing as gold open access before but it is quite easy to apply for funding. Publishing this way can get your research published quickly and accessible by the public.

To celebrate International Open Access Week, we are highlighting some routes to achieve open access that are available to University of Reading researchers.

Dr Emma Borg published one of her recent papers in a Springer hybrid journal using the Springer Open Choice deal. Here, she explains how she arranged gold open access publication with the publisher.

When you were choosing where to publish, were you thinking about submitting to journals that would be able to make your article open access?This paper was in a new research area where neither I nor my co-author Bradford Hooker had published before. We asked colleagues at Oxford University what the best journal was in the subject area and submitted to that one. The article was planned as an impact piece so we did wonder about applying for Reading University funds to make it open access.

Did the journal ask you about open access when your paper was accepted? Did they make you aware of any deals or discounts?I hadn’t looked into what deals with publishers were available through Reading University in advance so it was a pleasant surprise to find out from Springer that there was an arrangement in place with my institution.

How easy was the process to apply for and get open access funding?Very easy. I didn’t have to apply for funding or complete any forms as the gold open access was covered by a general JISC agreement. The open access team in the Library confirmed to the publisher that I was a member of Reading University staff and it all went through very smoothly.

Has your article received much attention since it was published?Gold open access was particularly good for this article as it was an impact piece that we wanted to have a broader reach than our standard academic papers. We are hoping that publishing as gold open access will result in a wider readership for the paper.

The paper has got an Altmetric score of 2 and is number 28 out of 45 outputs from the journal that were published at the same time.

The paper has also been deposited in University of Reading’s institutional repository, CentAUR, and the full text of the article has been downloaded 21 times since April 2017.

I think it might be a bit too early to tell whether open access has helped with citations.

Will you try and make your next output open access?I might look at the gold open access route for future publications. I tend to make publishing decisions based on discipline-specific views about the best journals but I may start looking at some bibliometrics and the availability of gold open access in future. By uploading my articles to CentAUR, I’m already making sure that they will be available via the green open access route.

In this interview, Dr Billy Wong (ORCID 0000-0002-7310-6418), Lecturer in Widening Participation at the Institute of Education, University of Reading, explains how he published three articles using this discount scheme.

How do you usually choose where to publish your work?I usually go for the ‘best fit’ between the Journal’s scope, aims and objectives and my article. This could include factors such as the word count and the specific subject area. I’ve not regarded open access as a key priority in the past as I’ve assumed that most of my readers will be academics who will be able to read my articles through their university library subscriptions.

How did you find out that you could publish your paper as open access?I was not sure whether I would be able to apply for payment of open access fees. I went to a People Development session on open access policies and publishing and found out through the Q&A session that the University Library had a deal with the publisher. This meant that I could publish my paper open access in a hybrid journal for less than £500 and so be eligible for funding through the University Gold Open Access scheme.

How easy was it to apply for funding?It was relatively straight forward. The online form is clear and it is easy to submit. I heard back quickly with a decision on funding. I did not have to deal with any invoices as this was all handled by the open access team. I applied to have a recent paper made open access retrospectively once I realised that funding was available.

Were you previously aware of the deals that Reading University has with some publishers to provide open access?No – it was only after I’d published a couple of papers in my preferred journals that I realised that there were discounts available. I would now look at the information available to researchers on the library website or ask the open access team about what’s currently on offer.

Have your articles received much attention since they were published?With open access, I feel confident and proactive in promoting my articles via social media and email as I know that access to my work is only one click away for everyone. I can also share my article legally on collaboration sites such as ResearchGate. My articles seem to have received more attention compared to other non-open access papers in the same journal.

Will you try and make your next output open access?Yes, if possible. I think that all publications should be open access. Open access is the first small step towards public engagement with our research. A paywall reproduces the exclusive nature of academia. As authors, it is ironic we cannot openly share our own work. Open access will hopefully amend this.

Do you have any advice for others thinking about applying for open access funding?Apply for funding if you think you might qualify. It is important that all our research is as widely disseminated as possible. I still remember the times when I could not read an article because it was behind a paywall, which forced me to search for alternatives. We spend a lot of time researching, writing and polishing our work, so it is a shame if people cannot appreciate and use it because they don’t have access.

Attention for Dr Wong’s papersBilly’s publications are all in Taylor and Francis hybrid journals (journals that have a subscription but also enable authors to pay to make their work open access). All of Billy’s papers have also been added to University of Reading’s CentAUR repository from where they can also be downloaded.

Altmetric score for ‘I’m good but not that good’ captured on 23 October 2017

Published in May 2017, viewed 496 times on the journal website, Altmetric score of 15 and the most mentioned output from the same issue of the journal. The paper is currently at number 11 out of 15o papers tracked by Altmetric for this journal, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.